1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting internal and external parts to be assembled for an automotive vehicle, by which an inspection of the assembled condition, such as an installation accuracy, appearance, continuity and so forth of internal and external parts to be installed on the inside or outside of an automotive vehicle can be made.
2. Description of the Related Art
To carry out an inspection of an assembled accuracy of respective interior parts during the process of producing an automotive vehicle, the applicant has already filed an application (Utility Model Application No. 1-144180) for an assembly inspection apparatus as shown in FIG. 5. This apparatus includes model jigs 50 to which the parts are attached, for an inspection of each of the interior parts, are placed on a single inspection jig table 51, to enable an inspection of the configuration, continuity and color matching of all of the interior parts.
Furthermore, to determine the assembled accuracy of each of the exterior parts for an automotive vehicle, an assembly inspection apparatus as shown in FIG. 6, which, similar to the foregoing assembling inspection apparatus, has been put to practical use, in which respective assembled exterior parts inspection model jigs 60 are arranged on a single inspection jig table 61, and the inspection is performed by mounting the exterior parts on the model jigs 60.
Namely, the inspections of the assembled conditions of the interior and exterior parts for the interior and exterior of the automotive vehicle currently are performed separately, by using two assembly inspection apparatuses as mentioned above.
The installation of two such assembly inspection apparatuses at a practical inspection site, however, means that a space substantially equal to the size of two automotive vehicles must be occupied, which leads to the problems of an increase of the required inspection space, complications in the inspection operation, and a higher cost for the inspection facility per se.
Accordingly, there is a need to integrate the inspection apparatuses for the interior and exterior parts on a common table, and to reduce the size thereof to thereby make the inspection space as small as possible.
For such an integration, however, the model jigs for inspecting the outer parts on both sides of the vehicle must be placed outside of a side frame 52 (FIG. 5) protruding laterally from a table 51, on which other model jigs for inspecting inner parts are mounted. Therefore, the resulting integrated apparatus becomes longer in a transverse direction of the vehicle, and thus is still too large. Therefore, the integration of the model jig for inspecting the inner side parts and the model jig for inspecting the outer side parts, both of which parts form a boarding and alighting opening of the vehicle, has not, as yet, been realized.
Namely, currently an integrated model jig that will enable an arranging of the inner and outer side parts thereon, with substantially the same distance therebetween as in the actual vehicle, on a common jig table is not known, since it is difficult to obtain a datum reference for shaping the model jigs. Further, even if such an integration is attained, it will require a complicated mechanism for providing a sufficient stiffness of the jigs and for supporting same stably on the table. For example, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, in the case of shaping the outer side model jig 71 and the inner side model jig 81 of a center pillar section of the vehicle, model mounting bases 72 and 82 are currently used as datum reference members. Accordingly, a problem arises of how to inspect parts extending over the interior and exterior thereof.